Axialfest 2012 Recap

The first annual Axialfest was held this past weekend, June 22 – 24th, in Cisco Grove, CA. This event was known in the past as the “Axial West Coast Championships”, aka AWCC. This year’s event was geared towards “scale adventure” more so than a full on “competition”. While there are many classes to run, and trophies to win, this year’s event had a little different format to it, by offering numerous scale classes to compete in. Brian Parker’s new competition format known as “G6″ is slowly taking the country by storm. Parker and his group of Recon Crawlers set out to make this event all about driving your scale R/C truck on lengthy adventures. When I say lengthy adventures, I mean it. For example the first stage of the G6 challenge on Friday consisted of navigating 500 gates that were sporadically laid out in the woods surrounding Cisco Grove Campground, the base camp of our adventures for the weekend. These 500 gates are numbered and must be run in consecutive order. Sounds simple enough right? Well, it can be, if you can locate all the gates. Brain and his crew can be pretty creative when it comes to setting courses, and camouflaging gates. And keep in mind there are 3 stages to this G6 challenge, so 500 gates is only part of the 3 day adventure. In the end I believe some adventurists in attendance ran in excess of 1200 gates throughout the weekend. Here’s a run down from the event.

Axial base camp.

The mud pit, which would be used throughout the weekend.

Registration on Friday morning.

The Terra Cross track.

Competitors line up according to class for the start.

Brian Parker holds the driver’s meeting before releasing competitors out onto the course.

On to the action. A cool Crawlmaro replica made with a Wraith.

Brett Carlson from Bulu Productions made the trip down from Oregon to shoot a little video, as well as compete with his Wraith.

Driving out of a rollover will save time and penalty points if you don’t have a winch.

One of the challenges that had to be performed on this stage was a sled pull.

Here you can see the mud depth is keep scale for realism.

Teamwork is another key factor to making through all 500 gates. Competitors are allowed to help each other over obstacles if need be.

The start of day two’s Ultra Race. This was a class that required you to run the set course as fast as you can. If you are looking for a good fun cardio workout, this is the class for you.

The first turn was a bottle neck for the more densely populated classes.

Axial’s own Brandon Coonce took the holshot in his custom blue paneled Wraith.

Next class hits the ground running. This was the adventurist class if I remember right. This class wasn’t about speed, it was more about adventure. But, a quick start to get ahead of the competition is still a good idea until the group gets spread out on course.

Turn one mayhem.

Next class to depart for the starting area.

Turn one was a great vantage point again.

Ty Campbell from Tekin’s custom Wraith build hits the mud pit flying.

More turn one action.

Not very often you see a Gremlin sporting 54″ tires.

After all the classes got underway, I set out on foot with my camera to see what challenges lay ahead for our competitors. First driver I came across was my co-worker Brandon. He had a weird monstrosity strapped to the hood of his Wraith. I asked him as he went by what it was, and all I heard was something about a boat? Confused, I followed him up the trail for a bit until he hit a challenge section of the trail run. This challenge required those carrying kayaks or boats on their vehicles to launch their boats at the designated boat ramp, let the vessel float its way downstream to the designated pick-up zone, then recover your boat and load it back onto your rig before you continue on. Actually turned out to be very entertaining to watch, some boats sank in the “rapids” requiring the owner to tip toe their way out into the stream for a recovery. Here is where Brandon’s previously mentioned monstrosity/camp fabbed raft came into play. Constructed of a 2.2 Ripsaw tire, stock tire foam, Proline roof rack, Proline cooler and a little duct tape, this raft floated down the scale river like a champ!! Everyone was laughing as it floated by us.

A few other watercraft making their way downstream.

After completing a few hundred gates the trail leads the competitors back to base camp for a run through the mud pit.

Cupid’s set-up is looking pretty high-tech these days, he is now apparently sporting a compound bow!!

Meanwhile back at our campsite our XR10′s are still covered in shaving cream from the previous night’s “Rock Riot” event. It’s a long story………. click the link below the photo.

A little video of Brandon and I hitting the shaving cream pit first. Brandon had the honors of breaking trail, I am second. Listen to Parker laughing as we go through.

A few random campsites that were set-up properly for the disco themed weekend.

Time for some Terra Cross action. The TC races had a little something for everyone. There were classes for the SCX10, Wraith and EXO. Each class had its own variation of the track to run. This was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. It was the definition of backyard racing!!

First up for the heat races were the SCX10s.

Next up, the Wraith class.

And the EXO heat races were last.

Winner of the SCX10 Terra Cross Race was Matt Soileau

Start of the Wraith finals.

Taking the first Wraith Terra Cross victory was Axial team driver Ryan Gerrish.

Start of the EXO finals

Steve Brown of Vanquish Products tries to get his RTR EXO out of Ty Campbell’s way. Ty was by far the fastest guy on the track.

After all the dust settled, Ty Campbell took the win in the EXO Terra Cross.

Congrats to all the winners, you guys earned it! Here are a few highlights from the awards ceremony.

The future of our sport.

The Hawaii club sent this autographed banner to the event with signatures from the Hawaii G6 thanking Axial for their support. Thanks guys!!

That wraps up the 2012 Axialfestivies. If you can find a way to attend one of these G6 events you won’t be disappointed, especially if you own a scale R/C truck. Don’t forget to pack spare batteries either, because you are going to need them.

2 Comments:

Sheldon
Posted on 2012-06-28 19:17:03

Great recap Brad. Awesome event, awesome people! Can’t wait for the next one!

Thank you Axial

dan wilson
Posted on 2012-06-28 20:46:28

big thanks to axial and thanks for some kill shots of 3 day of fun anks to axial and crew